Game of Thrones Fans Are Frustrated Over Dark Cinematography in Winterfell Battle

Game of Thrones debuted the highly anticipated third episode of Season 8 last night and some viewers found it pretty frustrating to watch. The 82-minute episode was an intense battle throughout most of it with a ton of action fought in the dark. It was at times, really hard to figure out which way was up and which way was down and fans decided to throw their anger on social media. Some wondered if their TVs or cable boxes were messed up and others tried turning off all of the lights in their homes to better see what was happening. There are NO spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 8, episode 3 below.

The dreary battle in last night's Game of Thrones was set in fog, ice, snow, and thankfully some fire every once in a while. It was hard to figure out if we were watching White Walkers die or some of our favorite characters. Did another dragon die? We're all not really sure at this point. Was the episode still awesome? Yes, it was very satisfying in the end, but the darkness is still leading to a lot of questions.

Game of Thrones director of photography Fabian Wagner recently spoke about the episode, which is titled The Long Night. He spoke about the episode before it aired and said, "I wanted to evolve the lighting," which he may have done, but it still left us lost a majority of the time. We received some respite from the occasional dragon fire and a shot of the moon above the clouds, but for the most part, it was darkness. Wagner wanted to make the "storytelling of the lighting evolve with the storytelling of the characters."

Game of Thrones fans were left more than likely feeling what it was like to be in the battle themselves. The excellent score from the episode added to this feeling of being lost and then claustrophobic just seconds later. Tensions were always going to be high for last night's episode, especially after it had been hyped up so much with the return of director Miguel Sapochnik, who helmed the infamous Battle of the Bastards. As for making The Long Night, it was apparently pretty rough. Fabian Wagner had this to say.

"(It was) physically exhausting... they say don't work with animals or kids. We had everything times 100."

The Game of Thrones cast and crew worked overtime to bring the Long Night to Life. And while we couldn't see everything, we can take their word that it involves everything it should until some hardcore fan takes the footage and brightens it for us. When all is said and done, the episode left fans with more feelings than anything, which sounds like the point they were trying to get across. Television history is being made and people will talk about last night's episode for years to come. The interview with Fabian Wagner was originally conducted by Vanity Fair.

if you had trouble seeing what was happening on Game of Thrones, it's a great time to tell your cable provider (hi @Xfinity) you're sick of them over-compressing their signal